LIVE UPDATES
GRAND FINAL (Sunday)
18:45 CET - Mvp 3-1 Nerchio
Metropolis: Extremely similar game to the previous with an active, hatch sniping Mvp and Nerchio in full macro mode. Nerchio tries to break the terran lines on a number of occasions but staying predominantly on lair tech does not aid his cause. Mvp's defenses are immovable, his upgrades overwhelming and waves after waves of zerg break into a final gg from Nerchio. MVP is the champion of IEM Gamescom!
18:30 CET - Mvp 2-1 Nerchio
Atlantis Spaceship: A lot of base sniping leaves the players with shambled economies, barely mining off of three bases past the 25th minute mark. Mvp is particularly relentless and for every CC he loses he kills two hatcheries of Nerchio, putting the brood lording zerg in a dangerous predicament. As Mvp fortifies a position in the center, Nerchip tries to break it to establish some sort of map control so that he can get some bases up but hunter seeker missiles - obviously terran's new imba weapon - cremate the brood lords, putting an end to this game.
18:00 CET - Nerchio 1-1 Mvp
Cloud Kingdom: 50+ drones get charred by the blue flame/cloak banshee opening of Mvp and the terran comfortably throws in a fourth and fifth command center, preparing to go full macro mech mode. A slight overcommitment by him gets Nerchio back into the game, however, and for a moment the zerg is in full control - he has brood lords, he has 50 supply advantage and he has delayed terran bases with burrowed roaches.
What he doesn't do right is engage the mech army straight on, losing the bulk of his ground army and getting facesmashed by thors and tanks for the 1-1.
17:40 CET - Nerchio 1-0 Mvp
Ohana: A 2-rax opening evolves into a 4-rax/SCV all in that puts Nerchio against the ropes. For a moment it seems that Nerchio is too broke to set up a proper spine wall as Mvp almost breaks his natural but the terran is in even bigger trouble as his income back home can barely support the four raxes. Nerchio, on the other hand, somehow stabilizes himself and sneaks four lings into the bare base of Mvp, forcing a GG.
17:30 CET - TIME. FOR. GRAND FINAL! Nerchio vs Mvp starting on Ohana.
THE SEMI FINALS (Sunday)
16:55 CET - Mvp 3-1 VortiX
Cloud Kingdom: Mvp goes for clocked banshees as VortiX goes for his standard four queens into third base. Hellions get into VortiX's base to deal some nice damage followed by banshees that can't seem to get in. Mvp switches to bio and claims his third as VortiX starts his forth and jumps into muta harass. VortiX goes for a fast hive followed by a fifth base as he continues to keep Mvp busy. Mvp tried to harass but is faced with blings and infestors as the zerg gets his ultras up. VortiX's maxed army looks very scary against Mvp's 150 supply as the game nears 20 minutes. Just as Mvp maxes out VortiX goes in and destroys the terran's planetary. Mvp goes in to deny VortiX's fifth as brood lords come in to play. A minute later the tables have switched as Mvp drops everywhere with a 30 supply lead on VortiX. In a last attempt, VortiX goes in with broods and corruptors for a last attack but Mvp holds and claims the series.
16:30 CET - Mvp 2-1 VortiX
Daybreak: VortiX takes an early third as Mvp goes for rushed blue flame hellions. Mvp goes in with 8 blue flames but VortiX has no drones at his third and manages to kill all hellions with just one drone lost. Mvp does not let off and manages to do some damage with his hellions to delay VortiX's mutas from going across the map. A thor come in just in time to fend of the mutas as Mvp continues to harass with hellions reaching 35 drones killed. Mvp's third retreats as VortiX goes in for the kill with roaches and mutas, claiming game three to stay in the series.
16:15 CET - Mvp 2-0 VortiX
Antiga Shipyard: Triple command center start off our second game. Mvp flies his command center to the third as VortiX's third hatch ends. Mvp's economy goes crazy as he goes in for a drop. Seen by VortiX, Mvp retreats to deny VortiX's forth only to lose the drop units to mutas. Mvp is looking very strong as he caps supply ahead of VortiX. The zerg goes in for a comeback as he kills Mvp's entire army to even the scores. Ultras are part of VortiX's next assult as Mvp holds and again goes up for a huge (40!) supply lead. VortiX tries to break Mvp's secured forth a couple of times only to lose again and again as Mvp claims the second game.
15:55 CET - Mvp 1-0 VortiX
Ohana: Both players get their naturals as Mvp goes for banshee hellion to harass VortiX's third. Mvp pushes into the VortiX's main to take out a few drones but gets killed quickly. VortiX is quick to respond with an army of mutas to which Mvp has almost no answer. Hellions are sent to do a ton of drone damage on VortiX as both players lose dozens of workers. As the game progresses Mvp goes for mech turtle as VortiX pushes in with his brood lords. Seeker missiles finish just in time to save Mvp but he losses all ravens and most of his army. VortiX goes in again as thors and vikings try and push out the corruptors. Once again Mvp holds as the stalemate goes on. Mvp attacks with hellions across the whole map, as VortiX understands he has to go in for the kill or lose it. Mvp holds with insane amounts of vikings and takes game one.
15:30 CET - The second semi finals is starting - Karont3 VortiX vs IM Mvp.
15:10 CET - Nerchio 3-2 Violet
Entombed Valley: A mutalisk mirror redux closes the series between the two zergs. Once again, Nerchio is proactive about denying hatcheries and snipes the third of Violet and adds in an infestation pit after seeing that he'll be safe against a potential counter attack. Violet, on the other hand, keeps making mutas, reaching 60+ at one point of time and commits to an attack inside Nerchio's bases. He snipes a few pieces of tech but finds himself trapped in the corner between a rock and an infestor. Chaining fungal after fungal, Nerchio melts the mutas of Violet and takes the series.
14:45 CET - Nerchio 2-2 Violet
Metropolis: Macro set with a relatively uneventful early and mid-game. Both players kill each other's thirds but then sit back and tech to hive. The mirror is broken when Nerchio puts down a nydus network and makes a push across the map while it's building. Nerchio gets the better concave and pushes Violet back after an equal trade but a nydus worm suddenly sprouts in his main. Violet starts pouring roaches out and Nerchio decides to just go for the base race. His army meets a heavily fortified Violet, hover, and with more corruptors and hearty static defense, Violet manages to clean the brood lords of Nerchio and tie the series once more.
14:15 CET - Nerchio 2-1 Violet
Ohana: A similar game to the previous one with the small big difference of Nerchio killing 17 drones with a ling/baneling attack. Coming back is impossible for Violet: his infestor transition is not at all effective and Nerchio keeps denying him a third base to ultimately win the numbers game.
13:55 CET - Violet 1-1 Nerchio
Cloud Kingdom: Nerchio is in full and total control of this game. He opens speed/banes into mutas and then roach/infestor and sets his sight onto the third of Violet, denying it a total of 5 times during the course of the game. With no income, no map presence and no formidable army, Violet falls for the tie.
13:30 CET - Violet 1-0 Nercho
Daybreak: A very BroodWar-esque ZvZ of muta/ling mirror. Nerchio takes a bit of a lead after catching some of Violet's mutas in the middle of the map but Violet's faster third helps him catch up in numbers. Then, for some reason, Nerchio commits to an attack in Violet's main and takes a fight with spore crawlers and queens against him. Violet comes from behind and slaughters the mutas, taking game one.
13:20 CET - We have green light for the semi-finals, Nerchio vs Violet are now live!
QUARTER FINALS (Saturday)
20:45 CET Ro8: Mvp 3-1 Slivko
Another candidate for "Sickest game of IEM Cologne" arrives at the very end of the fourth day as Slivko met Mvp on Metropolis.
The mid-game went relatively uneventful as it becomes this map with the exception of Mvp's multi-pronged drops that Slivko has troubles defending. On the other hand, the zerg shows his brood lords and gears for a ultralisk transition hoping to bait Mvp into a bad tech but Mvp does not fall for it and keeps turtling behind his planetary wall, harassing Slivko's bases every chance he gets.
As the game progresses even further, Mvp switches to sky terran and sends his SCVs to die, which would become the highlight of the series. Instead of just diligently slaughtering the SCV present, Slivko pulls out a chain neural... and builds a command center!
As chills are felt by many a nerd back, Mvp decides it's the time to move in before zerg gets MULEs... Yamato cannons, seeker missiles and fungal growths color the sky on Metropolis but the air of Mvp is too strong. Slivko gg's, ending a series much worthy of this whole playday.
20:10 CET Ro8: Mvp 2-1 Slivko
Mvp opens with a 2-rax but Slivko scouts it on time and is more than prepared when the actual rush comes knocking. The battle is soon over and Mvp and Slivko go by their own business, expanding and setting up their economies. Mvp transitions into mech and starts killing bases of Slivko all over the place, putting him in very dire straits. This, combined with some other mistakes of Slivko such as not timing his spire with the hive tech, costs the zerg a slow loss but one nonetheless.
19:50 CET Ro8: Slivko 1-1 Mvp
More than 50 drones meet their doom on Ohana to Mvp's hellion harass and that pretty much seals the deal for the terran as Slivko cannot set up this late-game economy he is most comfortable with.
19:35 CET Ro8: Slivko 1-0 Mvp
Antiga Shipyard's imbalanced status might have to be revisited after Gamescom as Slivko, like Vortix in the previous game, just didn't give a s**t. In a complete reversal of what ZvTs look like on this map, Slivko took his fourth, denied MVP's center and ended the game in the standard, brood lordy fashion.
18:00 CET @ IEM Cologne Coverage Hub
Hey, look, it's Tasteless, talking to our friends from Rakaka.se!
19:05 CET Ro8: Vortix 3-2 Supernova
After pulling yet another theoretically impossible comeback, it looked like Antiga, Zerg's bane, might finally be the end of Vortix. Supernova played it by the book - he took a fourth, held it and kept denying Vortix's own fourth until the Spaniard was almost broke.
One does not simply scratch out Vortix, however, and with a couple of seemingly desperate ultra/baneling raids, he was able to snipe the center base and put Supernova on the ropes. By that time, the economy of the terran was scarce - he had no back up explansion plan should his fourth be taken down.
The area north of the center soon became the focal point of the conflict. Both players had minimalistic armies. Vortix was long-distance mining, trying to collect enough money for a hatchery while Supernova was flying CCs all over the place in a search for a base not blocked by a ling. There was none, however, and by some miracle Vortix delivered a comeback in large part unexplainable.
18:35 CET Ro8: Supernova 2-2 Vortix
Vortix's weak early game almost costs him the game once more as a hellion/MM push kills more stuff than is legal, denies the spire, snipes two evo chambers and leaves the zerg base in ruins. Thanks to the large distances on Metropolis and a couple of overcommitments by Supernova, however, Vortix is able to claw his way back and push it to the late-game.
And everybody already knows how scary Vortix is past the 20th minute mark. The brood lord/ultralisk death ball ran absolutely uncontested no matter how hard Supernova tried to cook a miracle with four vikings and no production.
18:05 CET Ro8: Supernova 2-1 Vortix
Just like he's been doing all day, Vortix loses his third, this time to a marine/hellion attack. He tries a mutalisk counter but Supernova is not ForGG and defends for the 2-1.
17:45 CET Ro8: Supernova 1-1 Vortix
By the time the Ohana set was well under way, it seemed like Supernova had had Vortix's style figured out: the mutalisk were shut down, the lings could not do damage, his mech army was getting meatier....
...And then it ended, at the hands of a brood lord/mutalisk push that floated above the thors and reduced them to scrap.
17:30 CET - Ro8: Supernova 1-0 Vortix
Vortix throws a little too many lings against Supernova's hellions and even though he is behind in the macro game, he still persist in going for his mutalisk style. They bring him the small victory of two dead thors but overall Supernova's mech is getting stronger and stronger. Even with brood lords on the field, Vortix manages to claim too little enemy units and the final engagement at Supernova's natural is lethal for the zerg.
Photo by: Martin Rehberger
16:50 CET Ro8: Nerchio 3-0 MC
Making ZvP look easy, Nerchio came out strong in the third and final game, opening with a small ling harass in MC's main and following it up with a deny on the third. Completely out of tempo, MC tried nevertheless to build up his blink/colossus/MS army but he was too slow with that. As Nerchio's ball arrived brood lords in hand, MC had to give out a "gg wp"
16:25 CET Ro8: Nerchio 2-0 MC
The game ends in a blink of an eye. MC opens Stargate, Nerchio throws in a quick roach/ling jab, kills the Artosis pylon powering the stargate and MC surrenders.
16:25 CET Ro8: Nerchio 1-0 MC
When Nerchio finds a warp prism in his main ready to thrash his base, he decided to go for a roach counter to return the slap at least to some extent. What he also decided was to NOT lose his main, kill a truckload of sentries and crush MC's immortal push (weaker because of the latter) with an elegant roach surround.
16:00 CET Ro8: Violet 3-0 Bomber
Not even tournament's best macro map - Metropolis - could bring Bomber a victory. The untiring Violet was constantly on the attack, lings finding every crack in the defense and ultras slicing them marines. After being bullied for more than half an hour, Bomber decided that he had had enough and moved out with the bulk of his army.
Choosing not to engage that at all, Violet waltzed around and gave start to another base race which, for a second time in this series, ended with a liquefying fungal growth.
15:35 CET Ro8: Violet 2-0 Bomber
Bomber opens with a bit peculiar banshee into tank build but instead of making Violet overreact into something that will lose to the transition, he got punished by early roach attack which completely thwarted his plan. Nowhere near in the place he wanted to be, Bomber nevertheless secures a late-game economy and start producing marine/tank but a series of pushes delay mining at the third for a salty amount of time.
Still maxed, though, Bomber does a push towards the center base of Violet but a large fungal and the tusks of 10 ultras make him tap out in reconsideration.
15:15 CET Ro8: Violet 1-0 Bomber
A clever fake 2-rax deception makes Violet overreact like never before, pulling drones and throwing in two spines when in fact there was nothing but CCs being built back in Bomber land. With 8 orbitals by the 15th minute mark, Bomber was fully set to support his mech army but although his economy was flourishing same could not be said for his army. Violet kept trading constantly, keeping the tank and thors numbers down at the expense of roaches so that he can tech to hive unopposed.
Yet, the final epic battle this game suggested never happened. Passing each other in the night, the two armies started eradicating opponent's bases until there were dots of blue and red literally everywhere on Entombed without making much sense. Incomes were nonexistent, but fungals were. Knowing that all he has to do is destroy Bomber's vikings to keep his lords alive, Violet sat in the prowl for that perfect chain fungal and once it happened, the first set was his.
ROUND OF 12 (Saturday)
14:20 CET Slivko 3-0 SortOf
A quick lair followed by a four-base infestor is SortOf's build of choice but Slivko is quick to ruin his party. A nydus worm pops out north of SortOf's third, roaches and queens pouring out. Despite splitting his army a bit awkwardly, Slivko destroys the fourth and deals some economy damage to the third but the higher infestor count of the Swede pushes him back.
This is all but a minor setback for Slivko, however, as he still has the better upgrades and the more stable macro. A second roach attack kills SortOf's fourth for a second time and with 20 less roaches on the field (and worse upgraded to that), SortOf gg's out, knowing there is no way of coming back now.
14:00 CET Slivko 2-0 SortOf
SortOf opens spire but a nasty roach attack by Slivko kills the natural, snipes the spire and a queen and forces the mutalisk back. Building upon that monstrous advantage, Slivko secures an overwhelming economy, techs to brood lords and flushes out SortOf with lords/hydra/infestor.
13:30 CET Slivko 1-0 SortOf
SortOf tries to do many things at once: expand, go for infestors and upgrades and build a spine crawler wall at the same time. Needless to say, none of this worked and Slivko just ran by the spine wall to take the game, meeting minimum to none resistance.
13:15 CET Vortix 3-0 ForGG
ForGG tries to diversify a bit and starts with a bunker rush (completely shut down) and goes into a thor/blue flame transition for the mid game. The first few engagement go in his favor but as he is not able to push Vortix in time, the zerg goes into hive tech and starts spitting our brood lords. The final engagement is at the north-west ramp: ForGG gets a couple of heavy shots onto the brood lords but a combination of infested terrans and fungals burn down the thors. After a ling follow-up, Vortix advanced with a 3-0, a score nobody expected of him in this particular match-up.
12:55 CET Vortix 2-0 ForGG
Same opening, same result - ForGG kills a hatchery and some queens but instead of building more CCs, he adds more production facilities, having learned his lesson from game 1. Not that it matter: after overcommitting to an attack too deep into zerg territory, ForGG gets surrounded, cleaned and dealt another loss.
12:35 CET Vortix 1-0 ForGG
ForGG opens with banshee/hellion with the intention to kill some drones but instead gets two queens and a hatchery! Ecstatic about his success, ForGG throws in additional two command centers and just like that ends up with no units to defend the ling/baneling attacks that follow. The third for ForGG is delayed, SCVs are killed and the terran is in an overall atrocious position. As Vortix starts sending in ultras, ForGG is forced to overproduce marauders, making him that much more vulnerable to the brood lord transition that ends the game.
12:05 CET MC 3-1 Kas
What better way to finish this series but with a... 2-stargate/6-gate carrier off of 2 bases? I know, there is none. What we know is that Kas was even more shocked than the audience as he lost marine after a marine.
What does MC have to say about that game? "I hope Blizzard do not remove the carrier, so imba!"
Right on, MC!
11:55 CET MC 2-1 Kas
In what would likely remain the best PvT of the event, MC and Kas went toe to toe for forty minutes before the winner was determined. The game began with Kas' commitment to a snipe on the natural in exchange of his whole army, followed by a clutch defense so that he himself can stay alive after the counter attack. From that point on it was a PvT extravaganza: armies were traded, workers die to storm drops, EMPs crippled casters and archons... at no point were both players at maxed supply as units were dying all over the place.
Finally, the full stop was put at the 40 minute mark as Kas assembled a big army of ghosts/vikings/MM and marched north towards a base of MC. Once again, storms were MC's saving grace: the damage was enormous, Kas' bio melted, MC caught a break and a 2-1 lead.
11:20 CET Kas 1-1 MC
Ohana wakes up to the sound of Kas' ghost/MM army knocking at MC's fourth. The absurd amount of fire power pummel through the protoss defenses almost unmindful of the storms and MC loses this base but Kas is still a bit low on SCVs despite his five bases and he's lost every single ghost. Soon enough, his medivacs join the realm of the dead as a big drop gets gunned down and as MC launches his attack, Kas is checkmated.
10:55 CET Kas 1-0 MC
MC opens with a 4-gate but as he scouts no aggression incoming, he goes for a third nexus and start macroing. Unfortunately for him, so did Kas and he did it way better. When the two armies met, the terran forces were in stupid numbers and MC had to throw all the storms he had to barely keep himself in the battle. Nevertheless, storms were not enough and Kas a-moved to victory with gunfire and narcotics.
10:25 CET Violet 3-1 Elfi
An iteration of game 2 as Elfi goes for a 2-base immortal while Violet launches counter attacks to delay it as much as possible. Still, Elfi is able to make it to the front lines of the zerg and has a good reinforcement tempo but a moment of inattention gets him surrounded and pincered to death by roaches and 1/1 speedlings.
10:12 CET Violet 2-1 Elfi
Elfi opens with a phoenix opening, kills a lot of overlords but is more irritating than economy damaging. Although with a little bit late fourth, Violet is still able to take it to the late game, steal the mothership in the first engagement and blaze out a big chunk of Elfi's army. Battles continue to happen all over the place : Violet loses his lords to a toilet, Elfi sees another mothership of his sniped, fungals and blinks and brood lords keep the game moving back and forth like a see-saw. By the 30th minute Elfi looks like to be in a bad position but all of a sudden Violet runs out of support units for his brood lords. Elfi pulls a pair of offensive blinks and wins the game as he cleans the tier 3 army.
09:45 CET - Violet 2-0 Elfi
Elfi goes for a 2-base immortal all-in but Violet is not impressed. A roach counter attack enters the protoss and starts tearing it up, meaning that he only need survive the all-in and he's fine. Violet did. And he was fine.
Group A (Thursday)
To playoffs: Nerchio, ForGG, SortOf
15:05 CET - Puma 2-0 SortOf
Game 3: ENTOMBED VALLEY: Puma's bunker rush on Entombed Valley is more lethal than SortOf expected and the Swede is done for. Not that it matters as he still advances to the playoffs and Puma says bye-bye to IEM Cologne.
Game 2: ATLANTIS SPACESHIP: Once again, baneling antics from SortOf on Atlantis Spaceship but much more successful this time. BY the 25th minute, SortOf is 80 supply ahead and with a death ball while Puma has nothing. As he realizes this, the terran taps out.
Game 1: OHANA: SortOf tries to bust Puma but the terran still has a lot of units out and is replenishing the bunkers. The second attack is also deflected and Puma takes a 10 supply lead. SortOf keeps throwing banes and lings at Puma but terran's lead only keeps growing as he has no trouble dealing with the poor lair tech.
15:05 CET - Nerchio 2-0 ForGG
Game 2: OHANA: For a second time, Nerchio goes crazy with burrowed infestors, roaches and speedlings. ForGG never secures a fourth base and at the 20th minute mark, all terran presence is eradicated from Ohana.
Game 1: CLOUD KINGDOM: Nerchio does an infestor harass at ForGG's fourth but only ends up losing all his casters. He doesn't make another mistake like this anymore and as he abuses burrow to the maximum to drive ForGG crazy, Nerchio snowballs into a game-winning zerg death ball.
13:45 CET - SortOf vs DeMuslim
Game 3: ENTOMBED VALLEY: Macro game once again. Both players are very equal until Demuslim starts losing more and more units that screws his transition and Sort of takes a comfortable lead. SortOf keeps pummeling and pummeling and the scenario from game one repeats
Game 2: OHANA: Ohana begins with a good pace for DeMuslim as drops and bio attacks step by step wane down the army of SortOf. The Swede pull some sweet fungals but it doesn't make any difference and once he loses the hive he taps out.
Game 1: DAYBREAK: Demuslim opens with a hellion/banshee opening but can't get past the mass queen and later the roaches and SortOf successfully secures his fourth. Both players are maxed by the 18th minute and the map is spkit in half with barely anything happening. This changes once SortOf gets to the perfect death ball composition and with a fungal after fungal he breaches the lines of Demuslim and take the first set.
12:30 - Puma vs Inori
CLOUD KINGDOM: A technical malfunction forces a remake of the game which now had Inori in the lead through the entire time. Puma tried making something happen by launching a harass onto Inori's fourth but as the protoss cleaned it up, his initial lead grew into overwhelming proportions, serving him a 2-0.
ENTOMBED VALLEY: Puma opens 1/1/1 but as Inori defends, the game transitions into a standard PvT. The two go head to head for the most part until Inori gets an excellent engagement and demolishes Puma while losing no colossi. This advantage evolves into a victory in the next few minutes.
Inori 2-0 Puma
11:50 CET - Nerchio vs Demuslim
DAYBREAK [Game two]: Tried and tested in many a TvZ, the adrenaling/infestor into brood lords style becomes Nerchio's best friend as he keeps torturing DeMuslim from minute one. The terran - never allowed to secure a third for more than a few minutes - is soon shoved into his natural, drowning in a sea of broodlings and lings.
CLOUD KINGDOM: A long, entertaining game on Cloud Kingdom closed the series with DeMuslim committing to an early marauder force and earns Nerchio's wrath for doing so, eating many fungals and ultralisk slices in the mid to late game. Despite his seemingly commending position, however, Nerchio's minor and not so minor mistakes such as losing a few crucial units here and there or forgetting to research 3/3 allows DeMuslim to pull a victory at the end of the day.
DeMuslim 2-1 Nerchio
10:00 CET - Puma vs ForGG
DAYBREAK: ForGG goes for a proxy banshee. Once Puma stops it, that's it. Short and not quite exciting.
OHANA: A blue flame hellion for ForGG brings another quick game to the series as Puma has every single one of his SCVs killed in a matter of seconds.
CLOUD KINGDOM: Finally a TvT worthy of mirror's reputation. Both players go for mech but the one in ForGG's hands has a mobility and aggressiveness uncharacteristic of a mech army, getting a 16 tanks lead at one point of time. Puma tries to sneak a ninja expo once ForGG gets into his face but as it is found, Puma is done for.
ForGG 2-1 Puma
Group B (Thursday)
To playoffs: MVP, Violet, Kas
20:10 CET - Kas 2-0 NesTea
Game 1: METROPOLIS A lengthy game where NesTea seemed to throw away an early lead. The game dragged on for a long time, but Kas' mass Ravens were just too strong in such a scrappy affair. On the other stream, MVP wins 2-0 against Feast.
Game 2: ATLANTIS SPACESHIP Kas shocks NesTea, who threw away another lead. Another unusual composition ended the game for the Ukrainian, but 15+ Thors are pretty difficult to stop apparently.
18:40 CET - NesTea 2-1 Feast
Game 1: DAYBREAK It's a base race time for the citizens of Daybreak. The flying mutalisk armada of the evil zerg emperor PalpaTean and the honorable forces of the Belgium Alliance are at each other's throats, both desperately sprinting towards an early lead in this warfare. But just like many times before, the Alliance is reminded the simple rule of inter-galactic combat: do not base race against mutas. Ever.
Game 2: CLOUD KINGDOM Unusual game where income levels fluctuate a lot. Neither player able to take a huge advantage as we head into the late game, despite some body blows to both economies. Feast flanks with stalkers and takes out all the broodlords and eventually ends this crazy game a few moments later.
Game 3: METROPOLIS Feast goes for a +1 blink timing attack but gets scouted by NesTea. The Zerg burrows roaches at his natural and digs them up exactly as Feast walks over them. Meanwhile, a squad of roaches and lings attacks the front of Feasts's base, forcing him to gg.
18:35 CET - Kas 2-0 PiG
Game 1: OHANA Kas opens with a blue flame hellion drop and starts beating zerg down in a game that was much alike that of Mvp vs PiG from earlier. A transition into full mech is too much for PiG to handle and the Australian is now just one game away from a 0-4 in series.
Game 2: CLOUD KINGDOM Kas takes a lead after a fight that led to him taking down PiG's fourth. Kas' marine/tank army is so strong that he can afford to build more-or-less every upgrade available. PiG transitions into ultras but way too far behind already, 2-0 Kas.
18:00 CET @ IEM Cologne Coverage Hub
Meet Australian's hope and the guest caster for IEM Day one Moonglade as he talks to Cadred's Richard Lewis.
17:35 CET - Feast 2-1 Feast
Game 1: METROPOLIS A slow, methodical 2-base push from Feast - in the center of which resided 10 sentries - forced Violet more and more into his own territory. Feast used a succession of forcefield walls to pick up whatever units he can, thus coming quite a lot ahead when he eventually runs out of energy. At that time, Violet's army is so small that Feast feels that he's allowed to be a bit more aggressive and shows off his signature blink micro for the 1-0.
Game 2: DAYBREAK Feast tempo in the early game is good as he delays the fourth of Violet and gears up for a follow-up push but just being slightly out of position costs him too much. Not having the weaker army anymore, Violet takes five bases, techs to brood lords/infestor and sets his sight on Feast's fourth base. After the first few blows, Violet is forced to pull back for a while as he cannot efficiently drill through the remaining colossi and stalkers but as his reinforcements hit, it's lights out for the protoss.
Game 3: CLOUD KINGDOM "I feel protoss so imba" said Violet after the end of 5-minute long battle that began with a 2-base immortal push, developed into some flamboyant immortal prism micro, went through some flacks and back-and-forth tug of war and ended with Violet's persistence prevailing in the name of zerg's common good!
17:00 CET - Nestea 2-0 Violet
Game 1: DAYBREAK NesTea gets an early game advantage as a speedling raid dances around Violet's banelings to kill two queens and cripple the macro of the AZUBU zerg. Once he is stable, Violet transitions to a roach/infestor and takes a third but NesTea hits with the somewhat updated although still highly effective roach/hydra timing. After the smoke from the battle at Violet's third clears, NesTea is 70 supply and one game ahead.
Game 2: OHANA Violet goes for spire after the initial punches but this tech is shut down and the two zergs enter a stalemate of constant engagements without a victor. Eventually, a base race ensues and NesTea build a spine crawler wall to block Violet's army away from his main while at the same time cleans everything of his opponent for the 2-0.
16:55 CET - Mvp 2-0 PiG
Game 1: OHANA Mvp proves that he doesn't need more than ten units to win a TvZ and a hellion/banshee combination strips PiG to laughable amount of workers. A small mech follow up is the final nail to the coffin and PiG gg's out.
Game 2: ANTIGA SHIPYARD After the initial hellion harass is denied, Mvp is in a bit of a supply disadvantage but that only lasts until he starts some real attacking. PiG's brood lords come a bit too late and zerg's passivity accomplishes nothing besides letting Mvp do whatever he wants. The Korea takes his second win in the group.
16:20 CET @ IEM Cologne Coverage Hub
Do you like pictures? Silly question, of course you do! Head out to our coverage hub as we've just uploaded some photos from day two at IEM Cologne. With that, our gallery for the event has grown to almost 80 photos... And we're just in the middle of day two!!
15:52 CET - Mvp 2-0 NesTea
Game 1: CLOUD KINGDOM Mvp goes mech, NesTea decides to counter this with a massive roach drop play. Overlord fly over to Mvp's base but a perfect scan spots that and Mvp pulls workers to auto repair and not lose any army. The sad reality is, however, that as a result he is 38 workers behind. Fortunately, those are more easy to replenish than mech. Mvp seizes this window of opportunity and pushes with full force. The workers at two of zerg's bases evaporate. By the time NesTea manages to muster whatever brood lords he has and move out, Mvp already has an abundance of vikings and cleans it all up.
Game 2: METROPOLIS Mvp opens bio harass but as this is Metropolis - the map of the long games and flashy endings - he starts switching to air terran and massing ravens. NesTea, on the other hand, keeps it within standard frames and chillingly moves out with a Brood Lord army. Mvp greets it with mass seeker missiles straight into the heart of the flock and NesTea evaporates with a "gg" on his lips.
Group C (Friday)
To playoffs: Bomber, Slivko, Elfi
10:55 CET - Moonglade 2-0 Bomber
Game 1: METROPOLIS By that time, we've learned that Moonglade likes attacking and attacking he did vs Bomber. A quick four hatch. into baneling/ling high tide force a lift on Bomber's natural and one attack later, the terran blows up into a loss.
Game 2: DAYBREAK Bomber opens with some hellion harass but eats a couple of counter attacks in his face and Moonglade pulls way ahead. A mutalisk transition closes it all up and Moonglade takes the series in two quick games that never got past the mid-game
09:30 CET - Bomber 2-0 Slivko
Game 2: DAYBREAK Despite SLivko losing many drones in the early game, this game goes on for more than it theoretically should have. By the 35th minute, the map is split and close to mine. Zerg has its standard late game compo, while Bomber is transitioning to Battlecruisers once he loses his more traditional air to fungals.
Bomber nukes his own battle cruisers by mistake but manages to push towards the last mining base of Slivko and take it down, while simultaneously muling whatever minerals he has left on his side of the map. Slivko is broke and GGs.
09:30 CET - Grubby 2-1 Moonglade
Game 1: DAYBREAK Moonglade tries to play this like ZvT and goes for muta/baneling, which is something hard countered by Grubby's warcraft micro. Blink, storms and forcefields negate the banelings fully and then there are just dead-weight mutas unable to do anything.
Game 2: CLOUD KINGDOM Moonglade maxes out on mutas and roaches and snipes the third of Grubby. He continues to push and push and Grubby's force slowly diminishes.
Game 3: OHANA Ohana: Once again, Moonglade turns on the aggression switch and start raging at Grubby's third but a stellar defense and efficient trades pull the Dutch ahead. Two colossi eventually make it to the game and Grubby just walks out and straight up kills Moonglade, doing some stalker tango just to make sure zero units are lost.
Group D (Friday)
To playoffs: Supernova, Vortix, MC
Open Bracket A (Wednesday)
To groups: Bomber, ReaL
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Bomber vs Delphi [WBR1]
OHANA: A quick and dirty lair tech play with speed banelings and speed roaches catches Bomber off guard and Delphi pull ahead 1-0.
DAYBREAK: Bomber fakes Banshee cloak to force a lot of spore crawlers from Delphi and continues with hellions in the mid-game. As the game progresses, the players transition to the usual late-game compositions and Bomber's macro incarnated in a marine/tank army ties the series.
CLOUD KINGDOM: Two consecutive baneling busts leave Bomber 16 SCVs short but overall the terran is stable and the overall impact on the game is not as major. Five minutes later, Bomber returns the favor but with much more style, attacking three bases at one with tanks and medivac drops. At the 20th minute mark, Delphi is 80 supply and 4 bases behind and taps out.
Bomber 2-1 Delphi
Bomber vs Bly [WBR2]
ENTOMBED VALLEY: A bunker rush by Bomber takes the life of Bly's natural. Bly stabilizes mostly thanks to Bomber's passivity but the walk in the park ends as Bomber pressures his fourth. The situation seems bad for Bly but a good infestor/ultralisk attack cleans Bomber and saves the fourth. The game soon turns into a late-game whack-a-base as Bly and Bomber run around trying to destroy each other's mining. The winds of favor change side every other minute and at the 45 minute the players are trying to operate with sub-50 supply. It takes another five minutes for Bomber to come out ahead after a thousand engagements and twice the mistakes from both players.
CLOUD KINGDOM: 11-minute hive gives Bomber the shock treatment many Koreans have received from foreigners and Bomber is swept away by Bly's perfect control and overwhelming forces.
DAYBREAK: After two crazy games, it was about time we saw something more orthodox. In an anticlimactic ending, Bomber took a lead, built upon it and did an a-move against Bly's army with his marines and tanks for the 2-1.
Bomber 2-1 Bly
ReaL vs Bomber [WBR3]
GAME ONE was not streamed.
ENTOMBED VALLEY: After getting three bases, Bomber starts to apply pressure onto ReaL. The protoss tries to fight him off as cost efficiently as possible but as Bomber dodges every single storm, ReaL is in a predicament, his strongest weapon denied by simple micro. After ReaL goes headlong into a final engagement by the watch tower and loses it, the score it tied.
CLOUD KINGDOM: Bomber opens with a 1-base banshee build and adds a marine/tank component to go all-in in ReaL's face. ReaL tries to flank Bomber's army but with no charge it's hopeless. Bomber takes it 2-1 and advances to the group stage.
Bomber 2-1 ReaL, Bomber advances to group stage
ReaL vs YongHwa [LBR4]
ANTIGA SHIPYARD: ReaL chooses to go for a 1-base blink plus immortals but YongHwa's 2-base colossus gives him no windows to abuse. ReaL tries to make a blink-in, blink-out raid in YongHwa's base but IM's terran chases him out, forces an engagement and takes the first set.
DAYBREAK: ReaL opens with phoenixes and transitions to immortals to stop YongHwa's blink counter attack. With phoenixes terrorizing his main and with a big protoss force at his gates, YongHwa decided to engage the latter directly and steps down the ramp to get owned by ReaL's concave.
OHANA: ReaL sneaks a pylon in YongHwa's base in the very beginning and after fending off YongHwa's 3-gate pressure, he warps in a handful of zealots to clear the enemy sentries. As ReaL's main army arrives to join the infiltration squad, YongHwa is done for.
Open Bracket B (Wednesday)
To groups: Mvp, Grubby
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Grubby vs Adel [WBR1]
DAYBREAK: An unspotted Stargate opening by Grubby costs Adelscott three sentries and an immortal and Adel decided to surrender instead of prolonging his suffering.
CLOUD KINGDOM: Adel attacks into a perfect stalker/immortal concave by Grubby and loses precious immortals and sentries. Adel tries to retreat home but Grubby chases him down with blink and finishes him up when he arrives at Frenchman's natural.
Grubby 2-0 Adel
Grubby vs Mvp [WBR2]
CLOUD KINGDOM: Things start bad for Grubby as a 2-base two pronged bio aggression puts 30 supply behind. That disadvantage continues to grow as Mvp keeps attacking and despite Grubby good micro, splitting and storming, there is just not fighting off the masses.
OHANA: Similar situation repeat on Ohana as Grubby is just outclassed by Mvp's playtyle who advances to the WB Ro4 to face Oz or Targa.
Mvp 2-0 Grubby
Ace vs Grubby [LBR2]
DAYBREAK: Ace tries to go for a hidden Dark Shrine but an immortal push ends him before templars can be built.
ANTIGA SHIPYARD: After Grubby can't break Ace's immortal defense with blink, the game transitions to a 3-base war of the worlds. Ace is the first to move out and catches Grubby in an awkward position at the central high ground and gets an immediate colossus lead that escalates into a win for him.
ENTOMBED VALLEY: Grubby's insanely aggressive 2-base blink play costs Ace three immortals and two colossi - a loss he doesn't take too lightly. The Korean tries to stay alive, fending off Grubby's stalkers with whatever higher tech he possesses but once Grubby's immortals join the battle, Ace has to GG out and say bye bye to IEM Cologne.
Grubby 2-1 Ace
Grubby vs Oz [LBR3]
GAME ONE was not streamed, Grubby was victorious
CLOUD KINGDOM: Oz tries to be fancy and invests a lot in pylons through which he is to warp in on Grubby's high ground. Unimpressed by Oz's move, Grubby goes full WarCraft 3 micro mode and kills every single unit of the Korean, losing one measly probe.
Grubby 2-0 Oz
Open Bracket C (Wednesday)
To groups: Puma, NesTea
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NesTea vs Puma [WBR3]
ATLANTIS SPACESHIP: NesTea goes all metagame against Puma and opens with double expo into mass economy explosion. After donating a bunch of mutas and lings, however, NesTea throws the tempo ball back to Puma, who start an endless pressure making the life of NesTea's hive tech very very dark. As three brood lords are caught unprotected (in a combination with a 40 supply lead for Puma), NesTea concedes.
OHANA: Puma does a 2-base hellion/marauder push but NesTea defends perfectly without anything but a few speedlings. With no third CC operational, Puma gears for a drop play to cover his next expansion but NesTea's counter attack is in the form of 5-hatch ling/baneling bust that trampled Puma in a very comical fashion.
CLOUD KINGDOM: NesTea sets the tone with some baneling carpet bombing in Puma's main but despite the 20 workers killed, this served more as a fan service rather than impacting the game. When Puma came out to attack NesTea's third, the zerg had painfully less supply and whatever banelings he had spawned right under tank fire to live a short life of nothingness. Puma advances to groups with 2-1.
Puma 2-1 NesTea
NesTea vs Killer [LBR4]
DAYBREAK: NesTea goes for mass muta/ling and takes the third base of Killer, which pushes the protoss into a counter attack. Like every sane zerg, NesTea decides to turn this into a base race, polishing the renommee of the mutalisks in these scenarios by easily taking the first map.
METROPOLIS: ZvP on Metropolis automatically means a 40+ minute game and so it was. NesTea once again opened with the mutal/ling snipe on the third but as Killer secured five bases along with a meaty colossus/archon/blink stalker ball, things started looking tough for NesTea. A big loss of his first batch of brood lords was as detrimental as a kick in the balls and NesTea never recovered, letting Killer tie the series.
OHANA: Forsaking the muta/ling openings from games one and two, NesTea went for the more standard 3-base roach into brood lords but the first trades ended up cost inefficient for him and Killer was able to secure a third and make a move towards NesTea's bases, bypassing the enormous spine crawler wall that guarded the front door. Holding his ground with a handful of brood lords, NesTea sacrificed his fourth but a couple of roach counters eliminated Killer's economy altogether. As the protoss army slowly but steadily diminished, Killer gg-ed out, knowing that there is no way he can possibly recover.
Open Bracket D (Wednesday)
To groups: MC, ForGG
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MC vs ForGG [WBR3]
OHANA: Every attempt of ForGG to be aggressive gets immediately shut down and the terran loses both his initial push and the medivac drop follow-up. A that point, MC cuts probe production to give ForGG some of his own medicine - a scary, angry and aggressive 2-base army that took the life of terran's now puny force.
CLOUD KINGDOM: ForGG does a hellion drop and MC just... dies. 25 probes lost in under 10 seconds brings the series to 1-1.
METROPOLIS: ForGG tries to do the same thing after hiding every piece of tech building but once hellions are spotted, MC immediately throws three gateways and churns enough stalker to shut down the hellions. A counter attack by the protoss forced ForGG to do a SCV pull into a "gg" transition, sending MC to the group stage.
MC 2-1 ForGG
Lucifron vs DeathAngel [LBR2]
GAMES TWO AND THREE WERE NOT STREAMED
OHANA: Lucifron take three bases on the back of a constant hellion/bio pressure. DeathAngel is forced to play from the behind all game and with the help of roaches and lings he does a decent job but when the tank transition from Lucifron becomes reality, the absence of higher tech for the zergs pulls him down to defeat.
Lucifron vs JYP [LBR3]
ANTIGA SHIPYARD: Just like the nerdy kid that gets constantly beaten in high school only to get his revenge at the end of it all, Killer endured Antiga Shipyard to take a 1-0 lead. For 30 minutes, the protoss sucked on mass EMPs, mass vikings and nukes as Lucifron diligently educated him in the antics of TvP late-game before storming perfectly twice and turning the game all around under what should've been Lucifron's baffled face.
DAYBREAK: Round two in the macro PvT ode between Lucifron and JYP saw both contenders being constantly in each other's faces, trading EMPs, storms, colossus lasers, viking shots and everything else that makes PvT so attractive. As JYP's storms' quality was far below those from game two, however, Lucifron was able to push his opponent in the corner at the third nexus and slaughter him on sight.
ATLANTIS SPACESHIP: Compared to the first two games, the third came off as a bit boring despite following the same paradigm.
CONTENTS
Group Stage
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Open BracketBracket A
Bracket B
Bracket C
Bracket D
